Proficiencies
The Six Proficiencies Weapon Proficiencies are the player's ability to use specific weapons. There are six in total and they include *One Handed Weapons *Two Handed Weapons *Polearms *Archery *Throwing *Crossbows The three melee profiencies covers the use of swords, axes, spears, maces, etc. Polearms can be one or two handed but are considered their own weapon class anyway. Certain throwing weapons can be used in melee as well, these weapons, however, are usually weak with a very short reach compared to their full sized counterparts. Archery and Crossbows are pretty self explanitory. The use of bows and arrows as well as crossbows and bolts will increase their related proficiencies. Leveling Proficiencies Leveling proficiencies occurs anywhere combat occurs. As long as you dont use your fists, your character will gain experience towards the weapon he/she is using. Increasing weapon proficiencies will result in: *Increased Damage *Faster Attack Speeds *Increased Accuracy (when using a ranged weapon) All results are gradual and may need as many as 50 points in a proficiency to see a notable difference. Weapon Master increases the rate at which proficiencies are learned as well as allowing you to spend weapon points into higher proficiencies when they exceed 60, 100, 140, and so on if the skill is acquired and more skill points spent on it. It is not proven, but the more damage is dealt with a weapon, the more experience the player gets towards that weapon's proficiency, therefore it may be a good option to couch lances as often as possible if the player uses one, as it can do massive amounts of damage. Ranged weapon proficiencies increase faster when more difficult shots are landed rather than when damage is done. Headshots provide a bonus to the difficulty multiplier as well as shooting while on a moving horse. As proficiencies reach higher skill levels (around 150 and higher) the amount of weapon points needed to level a proficiency by 1 skill level is increased. At 150, it takes 3 or 4 points to level a proficiency by 1 point. If you already leveled a skill slightly to the next level in combat, less weapon points will be used. Weapon points are gained by leveling up and spending attribute points in Agility. 10 points are gained simply for leveling up while an additional 5 is given for every attribute point the player puts in agility. Eventually, weapon points can be rather worthless when leveling very high proficiencies and it is a viable option to save them for lower proficiencies in case the player needs to change tactics or pick up other weapons on the battlefield. Tips & Tactics While playing Mount & Blade, it may be helpful to consider the following things: *If you plan on using Two Handed Weapons, it may be better to instead use Polearms as they not only have a longer reach; in Mount & Blade : Warband, most Two Handed Weapons have a Polearm counterpart which generally does more damage, has a considerably longer reach, and Polearms include much more weapons like lances and spears. *Some Throwing Weapons can be used as a melee weapon by (default) holding X and can be switched back to thrown by doing so again. *Even though your companions have the same proficiency for every weapon type,' some companions initially have skill points spent into Power Draw or Power Throw', which means that they should use a throwing weapon or bow since those skill points cannot be reclaimed or redistributed. *Your starting proficiencies are affected by the choices you made during character creation *While on Poor AI settings, enemies will not hold their shields up at extreme distances between the player and themselves, so landing arrows or bolts on Poor AI settings is dramatically easier.